Roses are Red
by DeadlyRose13
Summary: Title from song by Evanescence. Not giving away any pairings though. Seventh chappy added! Maybe some faxness, but there might be some cheating, therefore! I might change the rating from K to T soon, so watch out, little guys!
1. Chapter 1

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

Bring Me to Life

1

The funny thing about living is that sometimes it doesn't matter if you're doing so or not. Sometimes I think, "Is life worth living?" and in the end, nothing adds up.

But then again, I'm bad at math.

Anyway, I live in a "family" of 6 kids. There's Angel, our freaky little mind-reader, but we love her anyway, you have Iggy, our resident sightless-wonder, Nudge, the chatterbox, and computer wiz, though it seems like an odd combo, the Gasman, who… Well, you can get the point, Total, our talking dog, Max, the leader of our group, and the one with as much attitude as you can get in this lifetime, and me, Fang.

They may be completely not related by blood, but we're family, no matter what happens in this world, we'll survive, and we aren't ready to die yet.

A sterile, white room was my first memory, viewing the world from a cage, like looking at a picture-book- Like, a hostile, horrific picture book.

The whitecoats were the hostile, horrific keepers of this place just packed full of those eggshell-ish rooms called The School.

You're just gonna _hate_ the danger of this story, but trust me, you need to know. The world could lie in your hands.

But no pressure.

2

It was just me and Max.

Trust me, next time you're sitting in the middle of some god-forsaken forest just plain chock-full of those good old' half wolves who are trying to kill you, you might not wanna be alone.

Max wouldn't admit it, but she felt the same way. I have a way of reading people's emotions, that even little 6-year-old Angel doesn't have. Of course, people can't read my expression. Well, except for Max, but even she can't see past the steel features that make me who I am, sometimes.

Anyhow, we were keeping watch, I was watching west side, and Max seized the east.

I flipped open my laptop, which had a paper folded on the inside- A map. We were in the Black Forest. There was a line of black from California, all the way to Germany, our destination. Of course, the line was curvy, with twists and turns every which way, and it reminded me of one of those creepy plants that we had seen many times… Mostly around fences. A shiver crawled down my spine just thinking about them-They killed whole forests at a time. Of course, we were gonna put Itex's lights out all in out own time! Of course we could do it.

I looked at Max, my raptor vision made out her simply standing up stick-straight, and watching around cautiously, with her own keen eyes.

That was when we heard the awful screech.

3

Okay, so we were hiding away behind the Itex headquarters, and we had absolutely not plan at the moment, but when an earsplitting _alarm_ comes on after a few hours of sitting completely still, it surprised even me, but only for the _tiniest millisecond. _Max snapped out of her own lookout mode, and grabbed Angel and Nudge. She tapped the back of Iggy's hand once, and he woke up. She shot me a look, and I grabbed the Gasman, and we all soared toward the cloudy smudges in the sky. I let out a breath I hadn't realized that I had been holding and saw that there was the slightest rustle in the forest down below. "Kids" Angel whispered. She looked odd, very concentrated, yet puzzled.

"You're going to die!" yelled a voice from above, but not towards us- Towards the bush below.

"They need help"


	2. Chapter 2

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

Bring Me to Life

4

Okay, so _we _had to go be the rescuers for those losers? Fat chance. "C'mon, Angel, we have to go, before they catch us too!" I said. Max shot me a look.

"They need _our _help!" Angel yelled at me. I was taken aback.

She _yelled _at me?

I sighed. Max was going to do it. How idiotic! She was such a _sap._

At any rate, she swooped down and knocked an eraser in the stomach with a roundhouse kick that smashed the thing into the ground. She put a foot on its neck. It was dead in 5 seconds tops. I'll spare you the disgusting details

"Die? I don't think so. Now, tell the Director to die and rot for me! Send me a postcard from Hell!" Max yelled to the rest of the erasers, as I then decided that the mere 10 were easy enough for Max. Too easy. Then, you guessed it- about 100 or so erasers swooped in with awkward movements. It was then that I figured I should help, so I came crashing down with my foot on an eraser's head. Smashing it to the ground, I smirked, despite how gruesome it looked

"Look alive!" Came a shout from Gazzy. I ducked for cover, pulling Max down with me, for an eraser had just shocked her by getting a hit to her stomach.

For that one split second, I could feel Max's breathing right next to me, and I held her down tighter.

Then we heard a boom. Like, BOOM!

How Max doesn't find out that Iggy and Gazzy carry bombs around with them, I had no idea, but it sure came in handy sometimes.

Max came out of my arms quickly, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The brush that had been wiggling just seconds before seemed to now be still.

Max silently did a head count, and then nodded for me to follow her over to the bush.

I pushed some red fall leaves away, to see a two pairs of eyes staring in terror at us. Pulling some bodies out, incredibly skinny ones at that, I could see it was two girls, one maybe a few inches shorter than Max.

One jumped out, about 5 feet out, to be exact. I almost jumped back. She had a tail. And that wasn't all.

5

There were two big matching black pointed ears sticking out of the top of her head. The tail was this same color, too. Her blonde hair looked very dirty, and reached toward the middle of her back. She had piercing bright green eyes, and her torn red T-shirt was just a dark brown, torn at the bottom, with faded jeans covering the lower half of her body.

She licked her cracked lips.

This was surprising. In fact, so surprising that even Nudge was speechless.

"You're… An experiment?" Came Angel's small voice. I glanced at the other girl. Was there something different about her too? In any case, I was going to find out soon.

The girl still next to the bush was much shorter than the one about 5 feet in front of us. She looked very small and helpless. She was twitching, looked around the area, and then looked at the other girl. The blond-haired one looked at her and nodded. "I'm Experiment 112." Said the cat-girl.

I glanced at the silent one once more. She took a small step out of the brush.

Now this one had ears too. They were white. But more like a… Rabbit's ears.

A girl with Rabbit ears. This was even more surprising.

Okay, _her_ ears were about a foot long. _Her _hair was black, stuffed into a messy ponytail on top of her head, and reached the beginning of her back. I estimated that down, it would reach the same place as Experiment 112's did. _Her _shirt was black, and had some white writing on it that looked Japanese. _Her _eyes were a soft blue. And, finally, _she _had on some light-colored and torn capris that looked like they used to be jeans.

Stepping farther into the light of the moon, she finally spoke. "Hello? I am Experiment 113" she said, in an accent I guessed was heavily Japanese. Maybe that really was Japanese writing on her shirt.

Oh, my God.

6

This was like, a totally new development. Other successful experiments? Unheard of.

Experiment 112 looked much more confident than Experiment 113 did, but she still looked very scared. Max looked at me. She didn't know what to say. Neither did I, for that matter. Not even Nudge-- Wow.

The girls chose this moment to speak up. "We are trying to escape from this place. They keep prisoners here. Experiments are dieing. Selling us to different countries as slaves," Said Experiment 112. "They are killing us, destroying the world, and everyone in it." She finished.

This girl must be sentence challenged, no?

Gazzy stepped closer to Experiment 112. "Cool! You guys are _other _experiments that survived?" I shot him a look, as did Max, at the same time. I guess we're just funny that way. "Oh wait, was that a secret?" he asked, looking to me. "Not anymore" I said simply.

God, Gazzy, we love him, but sometimes he gets pretty annoying-As you've seen.

Max rolled her eyes.

"Fang, can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked firmly, more like a command than a question. I raised an eyebrow. "Talk away." I said, planting my feet to the ground. "I meant privately, you idiot!" she said. And this was her way of holding her temper. She grabbed my forearm and pulled-cough-dragged-cough- me over to a place out of earshot from the others.

"We don't know if they're spies, or worse" I declared. "There's a girl with bunny ears. _Bunny _ears. How evil could she be? They look totally helpless." I gave her a look that said, "You're such a sap" and told her, "We can't let her come with us. You're the idiot! We can't just take some strangers from _The School _and have them come along with us!"

"We can't leave them here." She said quietly. Why was she being so quiet? She didn't sound as firm as she usually did. "We can't let them go along and die… We've been through that. It's hard to be alone…" she said, in the same odd tone as before. I sighed. This was stupid, but she sounded so helpless. I just wanted to either reach over and either smack her upside the head, asking her why she was acting so unMaxlike, or just… Take a step closer, and hug her, because she sounded so sad- I just wanted to cheer her up. I didn't like seeing her unhappy- I can't even name that feeling I had, but it felt sensational, and hard, all splattered on my brain at the same time.


	3. Chapter 3

HEY! I've decided to make it just one chappy instead of 3. I really hope you guys like. I'll post the next one soon! Thanks to MaxRideObsessed and Angel-Of-Absolution. AOA for favoriting and MRO just for posting a nice review. My last thank you is to

Xx-cyberkat-xX for inspiring me to write the next chappy!

3

As we walked down the gritty path- a path that we had made on our way into the heart of the forest- Nudge and Angel were taking turns on asking the two new girls questions.

I couldn't believe that Max had talked me into letting them come along- and she had said it so quietly… Ugh… She was supposed to be the leader, right? As in, ready, aim, fire! Where had that girl been?

And another thing. My whole life I had never really thought of Max as really a _girl. _Now... now it was different. Aren't people supposed to get stronger over time? It seems like Max is just getting weaker. But it's a good kind of weak. To me, anyway.

Well, talking about Max is giving me the shivers, so I'll stop now.

"You guys _have _to have names!" Nudge exclaimed, pushing her hands up in front of her mouth, shocked she hadn't thought of this before. "Oh, yes," Angel's wings jolted. "I have the _perfect _name for you, 112!"

The girl shrugged, obviously not enthusiastic about the idea, but not wanting to bring the girls down from their all-time high.

"I think it has to have a Z in it, because you are confident, and Z is a confident letter. But you're also sharp, like a cat. So I is a good letter. And finally, you're graceful. And that's L." Angel said all this, while her smile just grew until it was a big grin.

Nudge looked at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Zil isn't a name. Is it, like, Z.I.L., and it stands for something?"

Angel giggled like one of those _regular _6-year-olds when they get a new dress to wear to a Father-Daughter-Dance that ends up getting cancelled.

"No, silly, Liz! It's short for Lizzie."

112 smiled. Doesn't she know that smiling isn't what people over the age of 12 who are twisted experiments running away from certain death or slavery do?

Iggy grinned. "I like that name!"

_Obviously _he hadn't read the Unwritten Book of Rules for Kids Who Are Half-Human and Half-Nobody-Else-Cares.

"Me too," 112 (oh, _sorry, _I mean _Liz_) said. "And what about 113?"

"Oh! Oh! I got this one," Nudge butted in.

But she didn't get time to say anything more. Because the thick canopy of trees had begun to make a crackling sound. And not the kind that comes when you stomp on a bag of potato chips.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm falling back on my inspiration because I have hardly any reviews on this story! Please, R&R!!! I need it!**

"FIRE!" Max yelled, not in panic, but to alert everybody. I sighed. Another runaway. We weren't getting any closer to the Itex building.

Liz's tail had been curled up, but now it jolted into position. I could tell 113 was hyperventilating—she was terrified.

Max ran to me. "This is bad. We can't fly, the disturbance in the air would just spread the fire!" she was starting to panic. This was so unlike her. "What do we do?"

This _was _bad. The kids didn't know what to do, and Ig didn't know whether the fire was on the forest floor or in the trees. The Experiments were talking among themselves.

"Hold on," I said, putting my hand on Max's shoulder. "I think I've got a plan" I pulled away, ready to go talk to the kids, but she grabbed my hand and stopped me. "You can't think. You've got to _know, _Fang. You have to or else we're sunk."

I nodded and pulled my hand out of her grip as she turned away. Now I went over and began to speak to the kids. "In a few minutes, someone at Itex isgoing to notice the smoke the fire is making. So before it surrounds us, we have to hide. When the flyboys come, just follow my lead." Everyone nodded except for Iggy, who looked to his right, where Gazzy stood. The Gasman whispered to Iggy, "When I say go, grab my hand." And he nodded.

The Experiments were looking at me questioningly, but I ignored them, going back and telling Max my plan. A turned away, but once more she caught my arm. "What about them?" she asked, composing herself to be the regular Max again. "Who, the kids? They're clear on the plan. I just told them to follow my— She interrupted me. "No, I mean the experiments." she retorted fiercely. _"I'm not letting you leave them here." _ Max looked scary now, but I kept my cool. Then I raised my eyebrows slightly, to indicate, "Are you serious?"

Max looked at my face and opened her mouth to say something to me but then stopped and turned away.

After a few seconds, she turned back, no longer hesitating to say what she needed to say. "Are you really that heartless? Do I have to remind you how long we've been running? Do you even have…? Do you _even _have a reason to leave them here? If they turn out to be spies, then sure, Fang. Sure you can blame it all on me, but what you can't seem to do is realize _why _they need us. And what _I_ can't realize is _why _you're being such an idiot about this. And that's all I have to say to you now. But if you continue to be that way then maybe that's all I'll _ever _have to say to you... _Again."_ With that she walked right past me, and towards the kids, who had gathered with the experiments.

I didn't know what I was going to do. What I even _could _do. What were my options right now?

That same awful screech entered our ears again, interrupting my thoughts. The Flyboys were back. Too bad for them, though, because they came crashing down right into the fire. That flammability sure came in handy, sometimes. This wasn't my plan.

"Run!" I yelled, and all the kids followed. Max and the Experiments stayed behind. "Max! Come on!" Angel said running back to talk to Max. She pulled on her jeans, not understanding why she wasn't coming.

Just then, one of the flaming branches fell on Max, Angel, and the Experiments. "Max! No!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks everyone who posted a review, favorited my story, or put it on their alerts list! I know I left you with a mean cliffie in the last chapter, and I'm here to fix that. Enjoy!**

Not only was I speechless, but I could hardly breathe. If Max was gone, then her last thoughts of me had been that I was a heartless idiot. And, you know, that just wasn't right.

Everyone was scared to death. Including me, too.

Once the smoke had cleared, everyone gasped. Including _Max. _Angel was just plain... _gone. _The Experiments had, in fact, been behind the other two, so the branch had only looked like it had hit them.

Max licked her fingers and put out a small flame on one lock of her hair. At first, she looked so calm, so collected. But then, she wobbled as quickly as she could over to us, falling into Iggy's arms. This gave him a jolt, because he had had no idea that she was there. "Max? Max, is that you?" he asked, but to no answer.

Then Nudge spoke up. "Angel..." she ran to the exact spot where she had stood. "Angel!" Iggy almost dropped Max, but I came to catch her, glaring at him. Of course, it was a wasted expression.

Tears began to pile on everyone's faces- but not mine. I stared at Max's unconscious face, the lines of lifelong stress and paranoia covering it. Then I pictured Angel's smiling little face next to it. Where was that face? Would I ever see it again? And would I ever see Max's face light up and launch into the air, the moon only making her eyes brighter? _Ever? _

I realized that I was the only one not over by the Experiments. But I couldn't let Max go. Her hair would be soiled, and it would just hurt her more. No. So I carried her over to the others, my face full of melancholy emotions.

"So… What happens next?" Nudge asked.

"We have to go to Itex to find some answers. People don't just disappear like that. Angel must be out there somewhere." Liz unexpectedly spoke up.

I frowned. "But what about Max?" I asked, surprised to hear my voice asking a question. "We can't just leave her here. We're not doctors. We don't even know if she's alive." I let that sink in.

"Fang… Why did you have to?" Nudge asked. Then she tried to motivate everybody. "We've established that she might be dead, thanks to Fang," she said, sending a glare my way, to which I rolled my eyes. "But we have to remember that she could still be alive. I mean, she walked over to us, didn't she?" This got a few nods. "Fang, set her down." I hugged her limp body to my chest and shook my head no. The others stared at me in disbelief. "We fly with her. We need to leave this place- get some help. There's no use in getting at Itex if we don't have Max."

Iggy looked about ready to punch me in the face, and Nudge seemed to be trembling. "Don't you understand?" she squeaked. "We'll never get Angel back if… We don't try…" Then she straightened her head and shook it. "We're going. No matter what you say. _You _don't even have to come."

_What does she mean?_ I thought. But I wasn't about to ask a stupid question like that. "What do you mean?" But apparently Iggy was.

"I _mean, _that I'm going to go get Angel. So, exactly what I said. I'm going. No matter what you say. Ig, girls, are you coming with me?" Iggy slowly nodded and then looked roughly in my direction. "Dude…. You just… Don't get it." He said in a low tone.

Then everyone turned to the girls, who had never really been involved in anything we were doing until now. "We'll… We'll go with Fang." Said 113, who still needed a name. I groaned, but made sure no one could hear it. Then I spoke up.

"No. It's too dangerous. We have to stay together."

"You realize that you're the one going with the group? You're the one with a bad idea?" Nudge said. "Our plan is to find out here and _now _if she's breathing. Then we go to get Angel. Doesn't that make sense?"

I just couldn't get them to see. "Fine… You guys go. I need to get help for Max and then---" Iggy looked towards me in shock. "What? You can't get help! Remember the _Fnick _phase?" I sighed and nodded. "I have a plan," I said, just getting a good idea. "Well then, Fnick, what is it?" Ig asked.

I told them my plan as they slowly nodded.

"Well… I guess I'll see you?" Iggy asked me. I grinned one of my special grins. "Yeah, man." Then I turned away and stretched my wings, hearing the good sound of my shirt ripping in the back a little bit more

Then, I took off.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! I'm sorry about the really short chappy, but I'll update soon. If you're reading this, then thanks tons!**

**xoxoxo**

_7:03 pm_

_Southwestern Germany_

_Schwarzwald _

_[The Black Forest_

_Dr. Sibill walked towards the third room on the left in the Experimental Wing. He pushed open the stainless steel door. He observed the readings on the many machines beside a white bed. On the bed lay a small girl with long blonde, curly hair that was sprawled around her, and a skinny build. There were two large wings connected to her shoulder blades, one on each side. The one to the right side of the bed was bloody on the end, and about 3 inches shorter than the other. _

_"Doctor, the wing sample has been tested. There seems to bear good resemblance to the girl's" the tall man nodded. _

_He exited the room with the nurse, but parted ways with her as she headed left towards the lab area, and he headed straight forward towards the room opposite this one. When he entered, he saw the same setup as in the first room. The bed held a girl that looked exactly like the one in the other room. Except this one was breathing. He felt her hair, curling a lock on his index finger, then took a pair of scissors out of one of many pockets, and cut it off. Then he put it in a plastic bag and asked a nurse passing by to take it to the lab area. _

_After he was done with his duties in this room, he headed back into the hall. Now he went into a large lobby coming off of it. He asked a woman behind the counter to send the director a message. She showed him to the phone and he picked it up, dialing the inbound speed number for the Northern Wing. A man answered, and then directed him to a woman of about 34._

_"I think we are ready to bring the two girls to life."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey again peoples. Thanks all. I hope this is a good chapter and that you guys like it. Enjoy! **

The wind had been in my favor thus far. It had led me in a roughly southwest direction, and I was flying over the Atlantic Ocean—had been for hours.

113 had changed her mind, and went with Nudge. Liz just couldn't leave her alone, so _I_ had to be alonewith Max in my arms. She was light, because of her hollow bones, but it was still harder to fly, and I couldn't just flap my wings hard twice and then soar for half and hour. I had to always flap.

A persistent itch kept returning to my brow, but I needed both hands to keep up a person. I kept going, towards my goal.

**----**

About two hours had passed. Land was now passing under me. I was almost there.

I entered the United States border, and let out a sigh of relief when I saw an empty canyon below. Tired, I decided to land. The sun was beating down, but I walked to the side, the in-curve of the canyon shading me and Max. I itched my brow and wiped Max's forehead.

After a few minutes, I picked up Max and stood. Then I flapped my wings once or twice, spreading dust around and whipping it into the air before I took off.

**----**

I was there.

Landing just outside a small house, I scanned the area before advancing on the door. Once I was about a foot away, I heard a rustle in the trees behind me. I put Max down behind me and walked slowly closer towards the noise.

For a few moments, I just stared all around me. But then something came at me from the side, hitting my shoulder with a kick. I fell the other direction but stopped myself with my hand. My attacker was just one Eraser. I hit him with side kick in the ribcage and he doubled over easily.

The whitecoats must have gone mentally insane, because they sent just one eraser. At least, more mentally insane than they were already. Then I heard a door unlatch and a window break. I turned around to see a dark-haired girl run out of the house. She held a picture frame in her hands. She was running towards me. I spread out my wings and lifted just about the ground. I felt the air rush of the girl running under him. Then an upcoming one. I smashed down to the ground, crushing a body underneath me.

When I stood up, thinking I had saved the girl from the eraser, I realized something horrible. Something Max would never forgive me for. I saw who it was, whose body lay frozen on the ground, eyes wide open.

"Ella…"


	8. Author's Note

**Hey, you guys! I just have to tell you to please put up reviews! If I don't get more I'll **

**have to discontinue the story because of lack of inspiration! Even when I left you **

**with a big cliffy you didn't say anything! I'm sorry that I haven't included the next **

**chapter in this little Author's Note, because it's just an author's note. Also, please**

**notice that ****I have changed the story title to Roses are Red. ****I just kind of thought it**

**fit better. So, please, review, review, review!!!**

**XOXOXOXOXOXO**

**Poison**


	9. I'm Sorry

**I have a sad announcement. I am hereby discontinuing Roses Are Red, but I will keep sending the chapters privately to some of my close friends. Please PM me if you would like to be one of the recipients of the further chapters of this story, as it will no longer be available on fanfiction. Anyway, everybody, keep writing, keep reading, and try to live life to the fullest!!!**

**Peace out,**

**Poison**


End file.
